Oh boy, forgive me (or don’t) cause this one is super late but we all needed a few days after our race to be super lazy. Speaking of, speak out our report from Principal (Race Director) Tim Bulger about our School of Cross race this weekend!
This year marks the 9th edition of the School of Cross. The first edition was hosted by ERTC and organized by Aaron Schooler and Kyle Anderson in 2009.
As many of you Aaron Schooler is pretty good at cyclocross and was racing in World Cups and World Championships in Europe after a couple of years racing in Alberta and Canada. Aaron wanted to bring back to Edmonton some of what he learned in Europe and wanted a CX race that would feature the kind of course features (slippery off camber, sandpits, stairs, and steep run ups ) that he saw in Europe. For a number of years School of Cross was successfully held in Royal Gardens. In subsequent years the race was held in conjunction with the Red Cross race hosted by redbike. Construction prevented use of Royal Gardens for a number of years and the race has been held in Argyll and Rundle park. In 2016 wet conditions led to the cancellation of all cyclocross races on City of Edmonton property. Dry weather enabled a successful event in 2017 with Shantel Koenig and redbike leading the effort to design a challenging course.
Knowing that the City of Edmonton would cancel races at the last minute due to wet conditions redbike worked hard to move the race out of the city to Strathcona Science Park. In addition to being cancellation proof the Science Park has great facilities, loads of room, and an incredible diversity of terrain and surface conditions allowing for endless possibilities in designing a course. redbike led the way in designing the course, which is greatly appreciated as it reduces the complexity of race organizing for us. As planning progressed Aaron Schooler offered to provide some guidance on course changes to make the Sunday race a little different from Saturday. Of course we said yes. Walking around the course with Aaron on Friday night was quite interesting, he saw features in the landscape that I would never have thought of, and suggested taking the racers places I didn’t think were possible e.g., the Schooler Step. We think these changes provided a learning opportunity for those new to cyclocross and kept the racing varied and exciting for everyone.
School of Cross was the fourth race that ERTC hosted in 2018, we also hosted the Ten Dollar TT, Pigeon Lake RR, and the Provincial Crit. As with all of the races we host we strive to have a challenging race, safe conditions, equal prizing, good music, and ensure that our volunteers are fed and happy. Our volunteers make this possible and without them our races would (literally) not happen. Thank you to everyone who came out this past weekend to help with set up, running the race, and cleaning up afterwards. Jessica L. deserves extra kudos for stepping in at the last minute to be our first aid when our contracted provider fell through at the last minute (literally 10 minutes before the first race)! And thanks to everyone who helped with all of the other races that we hosted. It has been a busy but successful year.
It may be too early to start planning for next year, but I would like to point out that 2019 will be the 10th anniversary of School of Cross and a very large cake should be present.
Club Updates:
Wednesday Night Cross continues next week at Argyll https://www.facebook.com/events/674829162874735/ it’s the cheapest way to get into cross and upwards of 200 people race across 3 different categories! Register here: https://zone4.ca/register.asp?id=18640&lan=1&cartlevel=1
We are hosting a “Try the Track Night” on Friday. Show up at 6:30 at the track with a helmet, shoes, and pedals, and we will provide you a bike if you are interested in learning to ride on the track! Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1199926293494417/
Want to get away this Autumn or Winter and don’t have a bike bag? ERTC rents out bike bags for $50 a week or 2 hours of volunteering a week. E-mail me at president@ertc.org to check if the dates you need are booked and to book it. We have 2 available. They are the Sci’con Aerocomfort 2’s.
CX Skill Nights are a go! More information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/242857123240773/
Not in the mood for skills practice but want to work on CX intervals? YEGCross is for you! YEGCross is an initiative aimed for those looking to improve their speed on the cross bike, led by Jay and Robin. There is a $25 charge to participate in this group - pay here: https://zone4.ca/register.asp?id=18833&lan=1&cartlevel=1 and more information, go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1635190320143436/
We are hosting a little “Sort of End of Season Social / Costume Party” on October 20. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/events/570427496746957/
Ride Updates:
She’s chilly out - Thursdays will never die, but any other ride you may want to post on our facebook group to see if anyone else plans on coming out… https://www.facebook.com/groups/2316916558/